Hibs forward Adam Le Fondre admits the last few months have been some of the hardest of his career as he had to watch on from the sidelines due to injury.
The 37-year-old has been out since late October (2023) after suffering a knee injury, which has kept him out of action for over three months.
Speaking to Hibs TV, Le Fondre admitted it was a challenging period of his career – but is delighted to be back fit and playing again.
“It has been torture really. It has been a long time without playing so there has been a lot of rehab, a lot of time on the bike and a lot of mental struggles to be honest.
“For someone of my age to get a serious knee injury was tough, it was one that I have not really faced before – so I have had to prepare myself mentally and prepare for the challenges ahead. I can’t thank the rehab team enough for the work they have done with me.”
Le Fondre, now into his 20th season playing senior football, admitted the experience was a new one for him – having played over 700 matches without any long-term spells on the treatment table.
“It has been the first injury of serious note in my career and it has come at the age of 37.
“It is not ideal obviously, I have not had this long out injured in my career, ever. The last three-and-a-half months have been a tough period for me, but that is football for you.
“I had to get back fit, the goal was to get back playing and that was my motivation.
“Dubai was a real turning point for me, I managed to train with the team for the whole week and I was ahead of schedule. That gave me a good bit of confidence in myself and where I was at physically."
Since returning from injury, Le Fondre has featured off the bench against both St Mirren and Inverness in February, and is eager to help the team as much as he can between now and the end of the season – starting with a positive result against Aberdeen this weekend.
“We’ve improved the squad drastically with the players coming in (in January), but there is no two ways about it, we need a good end of the season.
“We know it is going to be a tough game (against Aberdeen). They have changed their Manager and have got Neil Warnock in. We need to make sure we are on our game, we need to be on the front foot, we need to be horrible to play against and let the attacking players take care of everything else. Ultimately, it needs to be a real team performance on Saturday.”
